I am a Survivor | Kiara James
Kiara James has a true heart of gold. While studying for her undergraduate degree in Public Health at the University of Louisville, Kiara started her non profit, Pushing Forward Inc. Pushing Forward is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people living with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCIs), particularly those from low income families, in Louisville Kentucky.
“I was working in a hospital doing lab work, but I wanted to work more with people. I started working with the community and with people who had spinal cord injuries. I worked with people from low income families who are trying to navigate the healthcare system and there were few resources with long waiting lists and no help for people who needed immediate assistance.”
During COVID, when no one in her hospital could have visitors, Kiara met a 17 year old patient who was in the hospital with a spinal cord injury. He was alone a lot due to the pandemic, so Kiara started visiting and talking with him regularly. While she was working with him and his family, she realized how hard it was for them to navigate this new world with limited resources.
“That was my introduction to how challenging the system is and how challenging living with SCIs are, especially if you are low income and living in old, poor neighborhoods, especially in the first year.”
According to the Christopher Reeves Foundation, expenses for an SCI patient range from $518,000 to $1.1 million in the first year alone.
Today, Kiara and her team at Pushing Forward, provide resources to individuals living with SCIs including installing residential wheelchair ramps, assistance in returning home, and providing essential items for people living with SCIs to adjust to daily life.
Can you describe your project and what you hope to achieve from it?
Kiara is using her Let’s Choose Love grant to support a special visibility project called “I am a Survivor”.
Part of the Pushing Forward mission is creating community and support for people living with SCIs. “I am a Survivor” is a docu series that is capturing what life is like living with a SCI and how survivors have adapted in order to continue living life to the fullest.
“I want to showcase that there are other things you can do, you just have to do them differently. I want to showcase people in different stages of their injury and share their stories to be able to help someone else who may be going through something similar. Starting with the kid who spearheaded this whole project.”
Other SCI survivors that will be featured in the “I am a Survivor project” include a woman who survived a car accident and has found purpose in her injury; she was in Ms. Wheelchair Kentucky and has started a clothing closet because she understands how hard it can be to find daily items as someone living with an SCI. The docu series will also include an SCI survivor who has been living with his injury for over 15 years and runs a successful basketball league, sharing what he is doing for the whole community. Thanks to the Let’s Choose Love grant, Kiara can highlight what SCI survivors have accomplished, how they adapt to daily life & find purpose in their new circumstances.
What inspired this project?
“I would say, telling the stories of the survivors. We always see the sad parts of SCIs, their needs, healing, and processing, but we never see the positive moments of their injury, and how they find their purpose, or their additional purpose, and that there is still life to be lived.”
Why is this project important to you?
“Because when you are going through one of the toughest moments of your life, it takes a community to rally around you and support you. When you don't know where to turn it can have a negative health and mental outcome. My number one goal is to have families stay together. I want to see SCI survivors go home for their healing and have family support around them. It is important to me that people know this is something that can happen to anyone at any moment and happens daily, it is an injury that does not discriminate and it takes a community to be able to support each other through it.”
What impact do you expect this project to have on the community?
“I hope that we will start having more conversations around community resources to support vulnerable populations of people. I hope there will be more research around the supports that are lacking and needed. I hope to open some doors and bring more people into the conversation around supporting people with SCIs.”
In addition to running Pushing Forward, Kiara is a community health care worker at the University of Louisville hospital. The university recently asked Pushing Forward to participate in a research project, attending some focus groups to look at how gun violence and SCIs have or lack resources to better determine what resources are needed.
As a new organization with big dreams, Kiara hopes the “I am a Survivor” campaign elevates the voices of SCI survivors and gets the word out about Pushing Forward and the resources that are available to people living with SCIs.
Through Pushing Forward, Kiara has created a larger community that supports survivors of SCIs, a family of sorts. “I always say I love you, because they are my family!”
The first epsiode of “I am a Survivor” is live! You can watch Episode 1: Kaelin Hall share about his experience living with an SCI below or learn more here.
Let’s Choose Love would like to acknowledge the mass shooting that took place in Louisville on April 12th that killed 5 people and wounded 8 other people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. We are also grateful to be in community with amazing organizations like Pushing Forward to support people who have experienced such tragedies. May we all work together to support one another, grow community and choose Love.
